Rod Out back wrote:

You might find this amusing...

snip

I rode over to him(Bike), and in the middle of a bare area of ground in
front of him was a plover, sitting on 4 very large eggs.

I *loved* the story of the plover! Thank you! I had an experience of my own when
I was about fourteen. Always a nature nut, I spied these plovers doing 'nesting'
sorts of things down the bottom of the crown land that backed onto our place.
One morning, I could've sworn I saw something small moving around between the
plovers' feet. I told my Mum I was going down to get a look at the baby plovers
and (fortunately) she came to watch.

I waited until Mr and Mrs had gone off shopping and then snuck down to the bare
patch of ground where I thought the nest was. Sure enough I spied about four of
the most adorable chocolate and cream striped babies! They were all crouched on
the ground as if trying to press themselves into it. I'm sure they believed I
couldn't see them!

Well, I was just a kid and only human: I picked one up. It was utterly adorable
and quite confident to sit on my hand unrestrained. I was admiring it when
something pierced my consciousness (LOL! Something was *about* to pierce my
stupid *head*!!!) Mum was bellowing 'Patricia! RUN, you stupid child! The birds
are back!'

I looked up, straight into the red, flaming eyes of Mr Spurwing Plover! He
comin' at me at a rate of knots and he was aimin' at a spot exactly midway
between my gormless eyes! I could *see* the spurs on his wings (I've often
wondered whether they can actually erect these during moments of Great
Passion...?) Anyway, I dropped the baby and sprinted back to Mum (with great
alacrity, she says, having sprouted Fred Flintsone legs on the way - you know
how Fred's legs turn into propellers when he's in a Big Hurry?) The plover
parted my hair for me, but no damage was done and I had the satisfaction of
having seen the babies Up Close.

It was years later before I realised what damage I could have done in
interfering with the babies - I've never done anything that stupid again! (Well,
almost never...)

Halfway back to the shed with the mob, I ran across a Banded lapwing
(related to the plover - smaller) that took off from a similarly bare area
of ground. It took me nearly 10 minutes to finally see the eggs; they were
no more than a few feet from me. It reminds me of those picture books that
had the hidden images that you needed to twist your eyes around to see. I
see the lapwing was back to the nest before I was 30 yards away as I rode
off....

Yeah, a pair of plovers laid eggs in the middle of my school's playing fields.
They were absolutely undetectable, but the birds patrolled the area continually.
Boys from the school took great delight in swinging at them with a cricket bat
as they tried to drive intruders away from their nest. One of the birds wound up
'broken' and the other disappeared. I assume the nestlings died... Why don't
people teach their kids to see wonder in Nature instead of a chance to kill
something????

snip

Trees here are a mix of Coolibah along the creeks, with some River Red gums
and Bloodwoods for good measure. The bloodwood photographed against a late
afternoon sky with a few dark clouds in the background look a treat. We have
a broad variety of acacia species (boree, gidyea, mimosa, etc), and even
some hakea, including a few Hakea Lorea (Bootlace Oak??) that I noticed for
the first time last year(I actually have some pics of their flowers
somewhere). We also get Whitewood, and Beefwood, although both these trees
are restricted to areas on the property where the soils are favourable. Also
native sandalwood along creeks, as well as bush orange along the harder red
soils. A lot of bush passionfruit vines, and an assortment of other species
that I dont know the correct species of (Dogwood, Suplejack, etc). Grass
types are mostly the 4 varieties of Mitchell grass, which is a very
drought-resitant native grass.

Wow! I'll be up next week! D'you get many birds? Anything unusual?

Most of the property (75,000 acres) is open undulating downs country,
lightly timbered. There is a large creek system running through the centre
of the property, and so there is a lot of timber through this area. I have
had arguements with people that are adamant we must have cleared our
country; however this is not the case in our area. We are on the edge of
some very open rolling downs country that has a very loose ashy black soil.
As you get closer to the creeks, the soil becomes more sandy, although stays
soil rather than sand.
This whole area was under an inland sea millions of years ago, and one
paddock at our southern end is a treasure trove of mud-stone rocks
containing fossilised crabs, amenites, nautiloids & countless types of
shells. We have even found a fossilised pine cone.

WOW!!! I'd *love* to see those! Have you catalogued what you've found? Ever had
a paleontologist over for a barbie? Could be interesting, y'know...

Interestingly, the loose ashy mitchell grass downs country is about the only
place where you will find a Collets Snake, which is a close relative of the
King Brown & Red-Bellied Black Snakes. Collets are very shy, and no doubt
lethal if they bite. They live in the large cracks that develop as the ashy
soil dries out. Local Parks Officer told me very few people have seen them
in the wild. Very pretty snake.

**WOW**!!! Gee, got any pics?

I'll see what I can do about some pics of all this; including the plovers
guild if they are still there tomorrow.

Cheers,

Rod....Out Back.

Thanks for a brilliant post, Rod! I never cease to be fascinated by Other
People's Gardens and your backyard sounds a lot like the sort I'd like to have!
Please give my best to Sgr Toiletto Frogoli and his dear Aunt Psycho! ;-D

--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia